Four things we learned from Manchester United’s FA Cup draw with West Ham

Manchester United’s kept their season alive as they snatched a draw with West Ham United to force an FA Cup quarter final replay against the Hammers.

With so much at stake it was unsurprising that the match was a tight affair, and neither side were able to put together a truly credible claim that they fully deserved a victory in an eventual 1-1 draw.

Louis van Gaal again tinkered with his squad and made changes, albeit some were forced upon him, as United played yet another tepid, ponderous match in front of their own supporters.

West Ham were only marginally better, with Dimitri Payet one of the better players on the pitch as he netted one of the finest free-kicks seen at Old Trafford since the days of Cristiano Ronaldo.

From a losing position United will be delighted to be in the pot for tonight’s semi-final draw, but a replay at the notoriously tough Upton Park in the last ever FA Cup tie at the famous ground is hardly an enviable task.

Van Gaal will have his work cut out to reach his first semi-final as United boss.

It is clear United lack a dynamic, all action midfielder who can control the position.

N’Golo Kante at Leicester City is likely to be a target, whilst Paul Pogba would be a perfect fit to control matches and give the offensive players more confidence and freedom.

David Moyes saw this as a problem almost three years ago and made very brief overtures to Blaise Matuidi of PSG before his dismissal.

4) Replacing David de Gea will be almost impossible

De Gea was excellent yet again yesterday and his save right at the death from Michail Antonio kept United in the cup.

He was beaten all ends up by one of the finest free-kicks seen at Old Trafford, but yet again he was United’s star performer.

He is on to receive his third straight club player of the year award and is likely to leave for Real Madrid this summer after the fiasco of last year.

United will have a real job on to replace a player of his quality without Champions League football and given the amount of points he has saved United in recent years, it is going to take a real improvement from the rest of the team to step up in his absence.